Published 9:00 am Wednesday, March 9, 2022
A Seattle company plans to sell the rights to build a solar-power complex on 625 acres of former agricultural land in Yakima County to Brookfield Renewable Partners, a publicly traded company based in Toronto.
Gov. Jay Inslee signed an agreement in December permitting OneEnergy Renewables to install solar panels and connect to a Bonneville Power Administration transmission line for the 80-megawatt Goose Prairie Solar Project.
OneEnergy proposes to transfer the agreement to Brookfield. The Energy Facilities Site Evaluation Council, which reviewed and recommended the project to Inslee, will meet March 15 to review the request.
OneEnergy and Brookfield did not disclose terms of the sale in filings with the council. Efforts to obtain comment from OneEnergy and Brookfield were not successful.
Goose Prairie and other solar developments proposed for Eastern Washington are attracting global investment companies.
Brookfield Renewable’s parent company, Brookfield Asset Management, has about $690 billion worth of real estate, renewable energy projects and other investments, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Brookfield owns 140 hydropower facilities, 34 solar farms and 23 wind farms, including the Shepherds Flat Wind Farm in Gilliam and Morrow counties in Oregon.
Brookfield’s managing director for renewable power, Natalie Adomait, said in February that the company was in the final stages of raising $15 billion for its new Brookfield Global Transition Fund.
“Achieving net-zero emissions and, more specifically, the goals of the Paris Agreement, will require a massive amount of capital,” she said, according to a transcript of a conference call with investors.
”The Brookfield Global Transition Fund will be just the first fund in what we believe will be a very attractive growth avenue for Brookfield,” she said.
The site evaluation council is reviewing two other applications to build solar-power complexes.
The Horse Heaven wind and solar project in Benton County is proposed by Scout Clean Energy, whose parent company is Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, which manages renewable energy projects in the U.S., United Kingdom and Australia, according to its website.
The Badger Mountain Solar Energy Project in Douglas County is proposed by Avangrid Renewables, part of the Iberdrola Group, a multinational electric utility based in Spain.
OneEnergy, a private company, applied in early 2021 to build the Goose Prairie solar complex 12 miles east of Yakima on property leased from two landowners.
OneEnergy cited the state’s Clean Energy Transformation Act as a reason. Democrats passed the law in 2019, setting the 2045 deadline for carbon-free electricity.
Yakima County planners said the project complied with county land-use laws. The Yakima Farm Bureau opposed the application, saying the solar panels would take up ground zoned for agriculture.
OneEnergy estimated that up to 300 workers would be employed at the peak of construction. The project is not expected to create any permanent, full-time jobs.
